Beijing

Sept 12th - Sept 19th (Day 192 - Day 199)

Hi all, hope you are well.After a few days in the canal city of Suzhou we took the train north via Shanghai to Beijing. We took the newly opened super fast Beijing to Shanghai line. It only took us four and half hours to cover the 1300km between the two cities.

Once we arrived in Beijing we took the metro to our hostel. As with Shanghai the Beijing is incredibly easy to use and navigate.

We came out of the subway just South of Tiananmen square. We were immediately struck by how different Beijing was, on a number of levels. The most immediate difference was the temperature had dropped by about 15 degrees and it was only late teens rather than the mid 30s which we had been enjoying for the previous six months, the change came as quite a shock . We quickly had to dive into our backpacks to grab another layer of clothes.

The second difference was the sky, from the blue skies in and around Shanghai, the skies in Beijing were gray and hazy. Making the city feel even cooler than it actually was.

The final aspect that struck us was that Beijing felt far more ´authentically Chinese´, especially in comparison to the modern western feel Shanghai had. This was due to the more traditional architecture and the ancient layout of the city with wide streets interwoven with hundreds of small alleyways (Hutongs) each with their own individual character and feel.

Our hostel was a short walk from the metro station. The hostel was set in a nice traditional Chinese building with a large courtyard in the middle. Unfortunately our room was not quite as nice as the hostel itself and had a distinct dungeon feel to it. It was dark, damp and cold…..not ideal.

We took the first day in Beijing relatively easy as we had plenty of time in the city and I wasn´t feeling particularly great. Unfortunately during the day I began to feel even worse and I became pretty Ill. As a result I spent the next two days in our dungeon of a room feeling awful…eventually I began to feel a bit better following of classic diet of rich tea biscuits and Pepsi. During the time I was Ill Tina took the opportunity to hang out in the hostel to pass the time and made friends with the owner of the hostel and some of the staff. She had a few interesting conversations with them…..although at one point they told her she should have a good Chinese boyfriend….instead of me…. For some reason after this point I decided I felt good enough to go out and explore the city!

Over the next few days we took in some of Beijing´s most famous attractions. We visited the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace and of the Forbidden palace. All were very interesting and impressive but at the same time they were completely overrun with tourists which, for me, took away some enjoyment of the visits.

Towards the end of our stay in Beijing we booked a trip to go out and see the Great Wall of China. There are plenty of different areas you can go and visit. We decided to head for one the more remote areas called Jinshanling, where the wall had not been restored too much. We hoped this would give us a more authentic experience and hopefully get us away from the crowds of tourists we had come across at all the other major attractions.

The experience of the wall we had a Jinshanling was exactly what we had hoped for. There were very few people at the site so we were able to wander along the wall and feel like it was only us there……apart from the locals trying to sell us souvenirs but they were quite discreet. We walked along the wall for a few hours. As parts of the wall had not been restored, at times this meant scrambling up lose bits of rock where the steps had disintegrated. The views all the way along were amazing, the mountain scenery alone would have been stunning but to have the great wall disappearing into the distance across the mountain peaks made the views simply incrediable. All in all this made a great day out, even despite the five hour journey back to hostel through Beijing rush hour.

During our time in Beijing we really wanted to try some Peking duck as the dish is so famous in the city. We went to a restaurant to try it early on during our time in Beijing but we found the experience really disappointing as the food was not that great. We decided we would try again on our last night. We found a small restaurant in one of the many Hutongs found all over Beijing. From the moment we sat down the atmosphere was amazing. The restaurant specialized in Peking duck so all around us people were tucking in and having a great time. The staff in the restaurant were very friendly and helpful which really added to the experience. When it came to our turn the manager came over and told us our duck was ready and called us over to watch it be expertly carved by the chef. He then brought it over to us and we tucked in to our juicy Peking duck pancakes. It was fantastic, far better than our previous experience and a great way to end our time in Beijing and China.

xxx